Ten life lessons from the “Kailash Manasarovar Yatra”

  1. The journey is as important as the destination: I had a dream of visiting Kailash Manasarovar for many years but it remained a dream for long. When I undertook this mission, I realised that the journey is as important as the destination. You can admire all aspects of nature as you tread along the mountains and rivers and when you reach Kailash, you realise that the road to the destination is as as beautiful as the destination itself.
  2. Physical fitness is not good enough to make it: I have been going for a walk every day for more than three and a half decades. I also practise yoga every day for more than a decade but this physical regimen was not good enough. You needed emotional and mental fitness to undertake this yatra. We met a few Everest climbers, who were gasping for breath and needed oxygen to survive in this yatra.
  3. Spritual calling is essential to make the trip: About three months back, I had contacted an agency in Bangalore and even on phone they rejected our candidature since my wife has a history of arthritis, bronchitis, cholestrol and BP. I did not want to undertake this yatra alone, leaving my life partner behind. But three months later, a family friend called and this time the tour organiser assured us that we can make it and I would call it a spiritual calling indeed. Today I have returned from the yatra to Kailash Manasarovar , along with my spouse.
  4. A confluence of body, mind and soul : The challenges of the yatra tests you physically, mentally and emotionally. I have never been admitted to a hospital in my life nor taken sick leave anytime in my career. But during the course of this yatra, I had high altitude sickness and was having diarrhoea/vomiting for three consecutive days and was drained out. I recovered from this illness just as we reached Manasarovar lake and was fit to undertake the yatra. A fit body supplemented with a focussed mind and a pure soul, possibly enables us to achieve this mission.
  5. We understand what a luxurious life we lead in our every day life, as we experience minimum comforts during the yatra: In life, we take most things for granted.-A good night’s sleep or clean toilets or a long journey by car. But, when you undertake this yatra, you trek, you take a horse, you walk through landslides and spend sleepless nights too. Sometimes you share rooms with many more people and have to also share washrooms. This is when you realise how lucky we are ,on a day to day living.
  6. Acclimatisation is the key to the yatra: We move from 3000 feet at Bangalore to 5000 feet at Kathmandu and gradually ,go up the hills , to reach a peak of about 16,600 feet. This climb is made gradually , so as to enable the body to acclimatise to the high altitudes. There is less oxygen in the air and the temperature keeps falling too. Our ability to adjust is the key to our success in life.
  7. Adaptability and flexibility keeps you ahead: We want everything in life ,our way. This yatra teaches you the basic lesson to adapt and be flexible to achieve your goal. You are not sure, when you start the yatra ,as to what is in store for you. It could be rain, sun or landslides along the way. Our intermittent stoppages may change and hotels booked ,may not be of use ,as we may be late or early. So, our ability to be flexible and adaptable makes us realise our mission.
  8. Change will be constant in life: The Kailash yatra teaches us this basic lesson that change is constant in life. Many things may not go as planned. Our flights may get cancelled, our route may get changed due to inclement weather, our immigration may be challenging experience ,spreading to hours of wait and so on. But as long as we are willing to embrace change as a way of life, we are sure of achieving our goal post.
  9. Focus on the mission – rest will follow: We need to be focussed in our goal in life. This yatra taught us that ,as long as we are clear and focussed in our goal and are willing to take on the challenges along the way, the mission could be accomplished. If we lose focus and give up along the way, we may return to the base camp, without accomplishing our goal.
  10. Gratitude to God and all elders is essential: Last but not the least, at every stage of the yatra, we need to be grateful to God and all elders ,for providing you all the basic essentials in life, in abundance. This yatra makes us realise that real happiness in life is the product of gratitude and contentment in life ,always.

Let the journey of self discovery continue for all of us ,forever.

S Ramesh Shankar

19th Sep 2025

Managing difficult relationships

Life is all about relationships. It starts in the family and then spreads to friends, society and organisations we work for. Each relationship is built over time and we need to nurture and grow them so that we source and spread happiness from them.

Every relationship has a value and we need to learn to benefit from that value. However , as we learn and grow in life, there would be some relationships which will grow with us and others ,which we find it difficult to handle. This happens in the family, organisations and society at large.

As social beings, we cannot run away from relationships around us. We need to learn to manage them and learn from them ,all the time. The relationships which are cordial and grow with us, nurture us and teach us ,a lot of life lessons. These could be relationships like parents, siblings, spouse, kids and friends.

However, there could be other relationships like work colleagues or neighbours or others, which may or may not grow ,as we desire. It is true that all types of relationships could be cordial or otherwise. We need to continually learn to live and manage them.

Let us start with relationships within the family. It could be a misunderstanding between parents and children or between siblings. The senior members like parents or elder siblings have the responsibility to take the initiative and ensure cordial relations.

Similarly at the work front, there could be misunderstanding and strained relationships between colleagues. There again, the senior most member or leader ,has the responsibility to sort out differences and maintain good relationships amongst team members.

The question we may ask ourselves is – “ How do we manage difficult relationships ? Yes, it is true ,that it is challenging to manage difficult relationships. However, the point to realise is that, in any relationship there are generally two individuals involved. If the senior among the two ,takes the initiative to sort out the differences, any misunderstanding can be sorted out.

If one takes the example of the union-management relationship in organisations, I would say the responsibility lies with the management as the senior partner ,to take the initiative ,to keep communication channels open, be honest with each other, to sort out any differences.

So, let us try to understand, how to go about managing difficult relationships. I have learnt that the following steps have helped me to manage the most difficult relationships in my life :

A. The senior most member takes the responsibility to take the initiative to resolve the differences and re build the relationship.

B. Open and honest communication is the key to resolve any differences. We need to put everything on the table and agree to work together with the intent to solve any misunderstandings between us.

C. Trust is key. We need to build and evolve trust between individuals and teams, where relationships are strained ,through our actions and not by words alone.

D. Willing to listen and forgive : We need to actively listen to one another and be willing to forgive one another ,so that we forget the past and move forward into the future, positively.

I am not saying this is a sure shot prescription for success ,in mending any strained relationship. But, may be, it could help in breaking ice and moving forward.

Let’s try one step at a time.

S Ramesh Shankar

10th Jan 2025

Syncing with nature

I am on my annual retreat to a heritage Ayurveda centre in Kerala, India. I attended a session by the lead Doctor of this centre yesterday. She gave us new insights of how “Ayurveda” works on the human body.

According to Ayurveda, human beings have an in built immunity mechanism and it can tackle and manage all diseases and injuries to the body. However, over a period of time due to wrong intake of food, our habits of not having quality, quantity, time and type of food healthy for us, our immune system gets impacted.

According to the experts in Ayurveda, the head in the human body is like the root of a tree. Just like we water the root of a tree, when it grows up, we need to first treat the head with medicated oil and other methods before we move to the other parts. All issues in the human body spreads from the head to the other parts through the nervous system and the physiological systems.

They say that we assimilate toxins all through the day and month and do not have a way to eliminate them from the body. When we fall ill, we take medicines and they help us tackle the disease or illness ,without getting into the root cause of the disease.

According to Ayurveda, the root cause of most diseases ,is the health of our gut. What we eat, when we eat, how we eat and in what quality and quantity ,determines the health of our gut. This supplemented with good sleep at the right time and not going against nature is important. Physical exercise of our choice and cordial sexual relations with your partner ,will help us keep up physical and mental health.

If we maintain our intake and ensure that we excrete ,what is not good for the body ,on a regular basis, the chances of our falling ill is very minimal. The immune system of our body will be able to manage most of the diseases, prevalent in society.

The process they follow in a typical elevenday programme is that they use oil massage therapy with a combination of oral herbal medicines to help us excrete all the toxins accumulated in the body ,during the first eight days. Then they clear the remaining unwanted things in the body through enema ,in the last three days. This way they systematically cleanse our body and help us regain our health.

I would like to share some examples of how this could work. Firstly, it is about preventive health maintenance. It is like ,we maintain our cars and bikes ,through periodic preventive service in an authorised service station. Similarly, we need to maintain our health with proper intake of food and regular exercise supplemented by an annual preventive health maintenance ,at a centre of our choice – ayurvedic or anything else we like.

Secondly like we use the right fuel and oil in our automobiles, in the right quality, quantity and time, similarly, we need to intake food at the right time in the right quantity and quality, which will help us keep healthy.

Thirdly, like an automobile is maintained well, when it is kept running and not kept idle. Similarly, our body and mind has to have regular physical and mental exercise to keep it running.

Let our journey to good health begin today by syncing ourselves with nature – i.e. the Ayurveda way as documented in 3rd century BC in India.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd Feb 2025